EGU PRESS RELEASE

ENGLISH GOLF UNION RESHAPES ITS
ELITE SQUARD FOR 2008

Following the progression of several leading players to the professional tours, the English Golf Union (EGU) has reshaped its Elite Squad for 2008 with the promotion of nine members of last year’s A Squad.
The 2008 list includes eight members of the victorious Home Internationals team and four players named as special cases due to commitments that prevents them from following the full Elite Squad programme.
The full squad is:
Jamie Abbott (Fynn Valley), Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale), Neil Chaudhuri (The Leicestershire), Luke Collins (Mendip Spring), Gareth Evans (Northcliffe), Sam Hutsby (Liphook), Steve Uzzell (Hornsea), Dale Whitnell (Five Lakes), Daniel Willett (Rotherham) and Chris Wood (Long Ashton).
Special cases are:
Matthew Cryer (Coventry), Charlie Ford (Kirby Muxloe), Chris Paisley (Stocksfield) and Gary Wolstenholme (Carus Green).
Abbott, Baldwin, Collins, Evans, Ford, Hutsby, Uzzell, Willett and Wood have been promoted from this year’s A squad while Chaudhuri was an A squad member in 2006. Five members of the squad are aged under 21 and two, Hutsby and Whitnell, are teenagers.
Abbott, 20, from Suffolk, a former winner of the Henriques Salver for the best British under 20 player at the Brabazon Trophy, has enjoyed a successful year with top ten finishes in the Berkhamsted Trophy, Lagonda Trophy, South of England Stroke Play and the Lee Westwood Trophy. He was also the leading player in the South East Qualifying.
Baldwin, 21, a former England Under 16 Champion and the current Lancashire Champion, reached the semi-finals of this year’s Portuguese Amateur, the last 16 of the English Amateur and was tied sixth in the Russian Amateur. He also made his full England debut in the Home Internationals.
Leicestershire-based Chaudhuri, 23, won the Duncan Putter in 2006 and this year collected the Czech Amateur, finished fourth in the Welsh Open Stroke Play, sixth in the Midland Amateur and ninth in the Tillman Trophy.
Collins, 22, from Somerset, has claimed victory in the Berkshire Trophy and the Finnish Amateur this year, having reached the quarter finals of the Spanish and Italian Amateur Championships and finished fourth in the Russian Amateur, all in 2006.
Evans, 28, was Yorkshire Champion and the English County Champion in 2006 and this year finished sixth in the South of England Stroke Play, eighth in the Welsh Open Stroke Play and helped Yorkshire to retain the English County Championship.
Hampshire’s Hutsby, 19, England Boy Captain, Spanish Amateur Champion and winner of the Duke of York Young Champions Tournament, all in 2006, made his full England debut in September’s Home Internationals, having enjoyed a successful 2007.
He won the St Mellion International and tied fourth in the Russian Amateur and the Brabazon Trophy in which he won the Henriques Salver.
Uzzell, 24, has helped Yorkshire to the English County Championship for the past three years. The left-hander was also a semi-finalist in the Yorkshire Championship and finished runner-up in the Lee Westwood Trophy.
Whitnell, 19, won the Daily Telegraph Junior Championship in 2006 and is another to have enjoyed a successful year. The Essex teenager won the North of England Youths Championship, finished runner-up in the French Open Stroke Play and the Tillman Trophy and third in the Russian Amateur. He also made his full England debut in the recent Home Internationals. Willett, 20, marked his return from a successful spell at college in the United States by winning the English Championship. That followed victories in the Yorkshire Championship and the South of England Stroke Play. The Sheffield based golfer also finished third in the European Amateur before making his debut for GB&I in the Walker Cup and for England in the Home Internationals.
Since then he was part of the successful mixed team in the Spirit International in Texas and finished second in the PING/EGU Order of Merit.
Wood, 20, enjoyed a successful 2007 in which he topped the PING/EGU Order of Merit. His victories included the West of England Stroke Play and the Russian Amateur while he was runner-up in the South West Championship and the Tillman Trophy as well as the Gloucestershire Championship.
He also reached the Amateur Championship quarterfinals, made his full England debut in the Home Internationals and was a member of the three-man team that won the inaugural Portugal Nations Cup. Of the four players named as special cases, both Ford and Paisley are at the University of Tennessee. Ford recently won his first individual title in the Turtle Bay Intercollegiate in Hawaii where his 54-hole aggregate of 200 was the lowest in school history. Back home, Ford, 22, from Leicestershire, won the Midland Qualifying, was third in the Midland Open Amateur and tied fourth in the Tillman Trophy and also made his full England debut in the Home Internationals.
Paisley, 21, from Northumberland, also completed his initial US victory when he won the individual title in the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate in Jonesborough, Tennessee, shooting a course record 64 in round two.
Cryer, 32, from Coventry, has been a full international for the past three years. A semi-finalist in the English and Italian Amateur Championships and runner-up in the Russian Amateur in 2006, he lost to Willett in this year’s English Amateur final before winning the British Mid Amateur title. He was also second in the Midland Open Amateur, third in the South of England Stroke Play and sixth in the Lytham Trophy.
Wolstenholme, 47, England’s most capped player - he made his 200th appearance against Spain last May - has been a member of the Elite Squad since its inception. Awarded an MBE in the last New Year Honours List, he has increased his long list of successes this year by winning the New South Wales Medal in Australia and the European Mid Amateur Championship for the second successive year.